IT Outsourcing without interruption

And runs and runs and runs …

As an international transport company, it is crucial for the Hugelshofer Group that the dispatching of its more than 130 trucks works seamlessly 24/7. Therefore, the SME cannot do without a functioning IT system for a moment. This places the highest demands on operational and data security. What made outsourcing the company’s IT to the redIT data center particularly challenging? – The migration had to be carried out during ongoing operations.

IT outsourcing as a basis for focusing on the core business

Customer

Locally anchored. Nationally networked. Internationally active. The Hugelshofer Group is a leading Swiss transport and logistics company that also holds its own in the European market. The company’s beginnings date back to the 19th century: in 1877, Johann Caspar Hugelshofer founded a contract carriage company, which developed into a modern transport company over the following decades. Today, with over 250 employees, the Hugelshofer Group offers its customers a wide range of services in the areas of transport and logistics.

Initial situation

Similar to many other SMEs, the Hugelshofer Group’s portfolio of products and services, and with it the company and process structure, has changed continuously in recent years. Technologies and the associated opportunities are advancing rapidly at all levels. These changes have meant that the IT infrastructure is constantly growing, becoming more extensive and more complex. «In the beginning, we had a server with a few PC s – but at some point, the IT environment becomes too complex», Windler describes the problem: «As a result, we could no longer guarantee support for our IT infrastructure internally.»
For this reason, the decision was made to have the entire IT professionally managed by redIT. The Hugelshofer Group decided to renew its existing IT solution. In doing so, the existing IT outsourcing was consistently pursued. Roberto Windler is convinced of the outsourcing of the IT infrastructure to the redIT data center. «The reason is quite simple: professionals take care of us and our IT there,» Windler explains this decision.

Challenge: IT outsourcing without interrupting day-to-day operations

The outsourcing project as such was never questioned, because the trust in the long-standing IT partner redIT had grown over the years and was simply there. The focus of the planning was therefore more on practical aspects such as the user speed for users. Among other things, it is important for the company that a dispatcher can access his applications at any time and without any loss of speed.
Hugelshofer’s more than 130 trucks are on the road day and night. Without ongoing IT support, no dispatching of the trucks is possible, and without efficient dispatching, all wheels come to a standstill! Therefore, the outsourcing had to be planned in such a way that the IT systems are available 24 hours a day – without interruption. The planning and organization of this outsourcing was an unusual challenge even for the professionals at redIT. However, thanks to the proven redIT project methodology and the comprehensive knowledge of the IT of the customer Hugelshofer, the specialists of redIT were able to realize the changeover without any problems after a test phase planned down to the last detail.

Solution

With the exception of the clients, the entire IT infrastructure was moved to the redIT data center in the course of the project. This outsourcing also included the entire software farm of all companies in the group. This affected a large number of applications such as Office, special forwarding software solutions, the Tachoplus application, software for live monitoring of trucks. All
applications, as well as the entire IT infrastructure, are now maintained, serviced, backed up and constantly updated to the latest state of the art by specialists in the redIT data center. Thanks to the careful planning of the outsourcing, the operation of the entire IT system could be guaranteed without any interruption. For the users in the companies, the major changeover was practically imperceptible. And Controlling is also satisfied: A pleasing side effect of the successful project is the long-term reduction in IT costs.

Conclusion: IT outsourcing successful!

From Roberto Windler’s point of view, successful collaboration with an IT provider has more than just technical reasons: «Today, many IT service providers have technologies and project management under control. However, as our experience shows time and again, the whole thing stands and falls with the personal contact person at the IT partner.» Especially in a project as demanding as outsourcing a company’s IT infrastructure to a data center, close and trusting cooperation between the project managers is the key success factor. Roberto Windler: «I have always appreciated the open communication, the sympathetic manner and the introduction of suggestions by my redIT contact person. Only in this way were we able to successfully implement the outsourcing in the end. redIT acts and thinks ahead. If you will, our IT partner feels the same way we do: To be successful, you have to constantly change!»